Homes & Gardens

Trinity Mirror Southern offers a selection of tips and products from West London businesses to improve your home and gardens.

HOMES & GARDENS
10
HOLIDAY LODGES FOR SALE
April, 2012
Homes & Gardens
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The main holiday park offers
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Joe Swift will be heading to Chelsea Flower Show for the first time this year.
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Homes & Gardens
11
April, 2012
Coming up roses for
show
FOR a man making his debut at the
illustrious Chelsea Flower Show this
year, TV gardener Joe Swift seems
remarkably relaxed, even though
advice is being thrown at him from all
directions.
“Titchmarsh has been asking me for
years when I was going to do a garden. Andy Sturgeon (a Chelsea gold
medal winner and competitor at this
year’s event), who’s a good friend of
mine, has given me some good advice
about the approach and organising
yourself, how to deal with things on
site and how to keep focused, because there are a lot of distractions.”
He hasn’t so far encountered any
of the feuding which can come with
such a competitive show.
“My landscaper said ‘The closer you
get to the show, the more competitive others become’. But everyone’s
been unbelievably
supportive.”
It has taken a year for his Homebase
Teenage Cancer Trust garden to
come to fruition. The inspiration for
it comes from his vision of combining
natural elements with city living.
“Living in a city, you notice beautiful
natural materials and are physically
drawn to them. I have boulders, a
UPVC DO O RS
by Swift’s design.
“It’s important to be able to take
elements of Chelsea home with you
but it is the catwalk of design.Very
few people are going to create a
garden that’s on the level of Chelsea
but I think there are loads of ideas
for planting areas and ways of using
sculpture and furniture that people
should be inspired by.”
Oranges, acid yellows, burgundies and
rust-coloured flowers combine to
create a warm colour palette in his
garden.
Iris, geums, potentillas, roses, libertia
and grevilleas all feature, some of
which can be easily grown in this
country.
“It is a climate change garden to a
degree. Four cedarwood frames will
be coming from Germany, while the
stone, boulders, walling and gravel
mulch are from Yorkshire and the
perennials are British grown.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs
from May 22 to 26. For details, phone
0844 338 0338 or visit www.rhs.org.
uk/chelsea.
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“The idea is to connect the city and
suburban dweller to those natural
materials that might not be so prevalent in the city, where you get a lot of
concrete and tarmac and other hard
elements.
“It’s incredibly relevant. City-cooling
in the summer and creating more
green space in the city is extremely
important.
“In a city space you want to keep the
focus within the garden because you
don’t have the rolling hills beyond to
tie in the extended landscape.
“It’s all about creating key views within a garden, and you can do that in a
small garden by placing key sculpture,
plants and water here and there.
“People need to think big in a small
space. Don't put loads of little things
in a small garden. Put one or two
big things in there to make a real
impact.”
Plants in his show garden will include
trees such as stemmed Cornus Mas
and Prunus ‘Amber Beauty’ alongside
a London plane tree, all selected
for their sculptural forms and the
interesting colour and texture of
their bark.
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12
April, 2012
Patio chic
AS summer beckons, many gardeners will now be deciding which patio
plants to feature in their scheme, but
it’s a difficult job as there’s so much
choice and plants can vary greatly in
quality, writes Hannah Stephenson.
The perfect summer container plant
should be long-flowering and diseaseresistant. But many simply don’t do
that job.
To save you some of the bother of
trial and error, Which? Gardening, the
Consumers’ Association magazine,
has now produced a report after
growing more than 35 new varieties
suited to containers or baskets before they were released to the public.
The plants, which were bought as
plugs or young plugs last April, were
grown in good quality container
compost with added slow-release
fertiliser. Planted containers were
kept in polytunnels until all risk of
frost had passed and then brought
out in June, watered and deadheaded
as needed.
Among the pick of the crop were
Osteospermum Serenity series (Mr
Fothergill’s; Unwins), with its soft
pastel or terracotta-toned flowers
that mature to a deeper, warmer
shade, and the Nemesia Lady series,
a deliciously-scented variety which
looked great in mixed plantings with
Calibrachoa ‘Can-Can Rose Star’ and
Pelargonium ‘Caliente Pink’.
The white Nemesia ‘Sweet Lady’ was
the longest flowering of three highlyscented varieties and still looked
good in September.
For those interested in new basket
plants, winners included Petunia
‘Sanguna Atomic Blue’, which brings
drama to any arrangement, with its
dark-throated flowers with dark veins
leading to a deep-mauve colour of
the rounded petals.
It carried on flowering when other
plants were waning, trailed well and
didn't suffer from having all the
flowers at the bottom of a curtain
of green growth (B&Q; The Garden
Centre Group; Homebase).
For a burst of yellow in a mixed
planting basket, Bidens ‘Solaire
Semidouble’ didn’t disappoint, forming
a dense trailing mat of fine foliage
covered with hundreds of tiny, vibrant
flowers that have an extra set of
petals around the eye, forming a frilly
collar. The plants grew well, flowered
strongly all summer and were easy to
deadhead (B&Q; garden centres).
Lovers of busy lizzies (Impatiens)
whose plants succumbed to a widespread outbreak of downy mildew
last summer may be better off
growing alternatives such as the New
Guinea-type hybrid impatiens or
begonias, both of which will succeed
in similar conditions.
Of course, no summer planting
scheme would be the same without
the trusty lobelia – and Lobelia ‘Super
Star’ lived up to its name, earning the
accolade of the best lobelia in the
trial. This small-flowered, bicolour
variety flowered prolifically, starting in
June and continuing long after other
lobelias had given up entirely.
Armed with your new knowledge of
the best in baskets and patio plants,
your garden is sure to be the best in
the neighbourhood this summer, so
get to the garden centre and start
creating your masterpiece.
Three of the best... plant pots
Show off your patio arrangement to
its top potential in these summery
plant pots that will brighten up any
outdoor space.
n Nautical plant pots, £3 each,
Matalan
n London bus plant pot, £9.99, British Heart Foundation
n Wooden tiered planter, £100, Next
Three ways to... brighten up a summer pot
n Add coloured mulches to the pot
while it still looks bare before the
plants fill out and start to flower. They
also help retain moisture.
n Paint your pot. Give your old terracotta pot a good clean with water,
let it dry and then give it a coat of
emulsion or masonry paint. If your
pots are plastic, use an oil-based paint.
Bold colours look best in a sunny
spot, pastels lift a shady corner. And
try to find something to tie in with
your plants and garden furniture.
n Underplant large, foliage plants
such as cannas with smaller flowering
species such as dahliettas.
Homes & Gardens
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14
QUALITY FURNITURE
April, 2012
Homes & Gardens
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Vibrant vessels
A QUICK twitch of the curtains
shows that spring has firmly sprung,
and with nature's floral bounty ripe
for picking it's time to find a happy
home for the daffs and tulips.
Perfect as a gift or decorative accessory, vases come in all shapes, sizes
and colours and - better still - offer
an affordable way to add a splash of
colour or interest into a room.
Glass vases filled with colourful
blooms are perfect for window sills
to draw in the eye and create the illusion of extra space and light.
To create a feature for a sideboard
or occasional table, combine an odd
number of vases in different block
colours, shapes, sizes and materials
for a stunning, contemporary look.
Refresh some more traditional settings by using metallic golds, silvers
and coppers to contrast with more
neutral palettes.
Whatever the style of your interior,
bring the outside in and make a style
statement worthy of any season.
r Lsa Zazou red glass vase, £37, Red
Candy
r Bud vase floral, £6, Breeze
r Hexagonal coin vase, £19.50, Marks
and Spencer
r Key lime collection glass swirl vase,
£19.99, Dunelm Mill
r Butterfly Home by Matthew Williamson small peach corsage vase,
£12, Debenhams
r Orange crinkled glass, £6.95, Liberty London
r Aldo Londi Rimini small blue cylinder vase, £31, Heal's
r Black Le Sack Vase by Trendform,
£8.30, Made in Design
r Betty Jackson Black ripple vases,
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r Kenneth Cole New York Home
outline vase, £30, House of Fraser
Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
15
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April, 2012
16
Homes & Gardens
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Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
17
A community space that’s
right up your street
URBAN alleyways in this country
have often been seen as threatening
places – dark, lined with brick walls
or fences, with no colour and plenty
of possibilities for crime, writes Hannah Stephenson.
Yet in certain areas green-fingered
residents have made their alleyways
a sight to behold, filled with plants
which create a riot of colour and a
heart-warming atmosphere, as far
away from graffiti-land as you can get.
The RHS is now calling on communities to transform unsightly, neglected
alleyways into green havens, championing the findings of a recent RHS
report that shows the significant
impact this sort of revival has on
communities.
A survey of 231 gardening groups
found neglected areas were often
problematic because of crime and
fear of crime. Disused alleyways were
a particular concern because they're
a perfect access route for burglars.
Many councils run schemes to gate
off problem alleyways and the impact
this has had on crime has been
significant in cities like Cardiff, Bristol
and Manchester.
According to the RHS report, in one
Manchester street, 50 properties
backed on to a four-way passage and
were prone to burglary. It was gated
off and residents planted it up, turning
what was once a crime-ridden grotspot into a flourishing community
haven where residents hold events
and children play.
“A lot of groups that have renovated
disused spaces like alleyways which
have been prone to vandalism and
anti-social behaviour have reported
that vandals sometimes continue but
this is extremely short-lived,” says
Stephanie Eynon, RHS community
horticulture manager.
“If they steal planters, do graffiti or
whatever, they soon notice that the
planters are put back and the graffiti
is removed – not by the council, but
by residents.
“These once disused areas become
looked-after, used, lived-in, part of the
community and vandals are put off by
the fact there is a strong community
presence.
“Groups report that vandals don’t
return. Whether it’s through fear of
being watched, the fact that there are
people physically now in these areas
is off-putting to them.”
The RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood
campaign offers advice on planting up
neglected spaces like alleyways and
also provides information on funding.
There are already more than 1,000
registered IYN groups. To set up a
new group or join an existing one, go
to www.rhs.org.uk/communities.
RHS Young Designer 2011 finalists
Owen Morgan and Alexandra Froggatt offer the following tips:
n A derelict alleyway can be taken
on as a community project. Even on a
shoestring budget, bright colours and
simple raised beds can transform an
area quickly. Be creative – recycled
items will add an interesting dynamic
to any design.
n Green walling is an instant effect
and can vastly increase your planting
options and available area for planting
in a limited space. Green wall systems
lend themselves to the growing of
ferns which are well suited to a damp,
shaded alleyway wall. There are plenty
of products on the market that utilise
pockets or pouches with in-built irrigation systems.
n With green wall technology the
potential for vertical allotments is
beginning to be realised. An alleyway
could be taken on by the community
and be transferred into a vertical
allotment. In urban areas this would
help towards the lack of available
allotment space.
n Take into account practical considerations. Speak to neighbours before
embarking on any structural work.
Take into consideration the Party
Wall Act and contact a surveyor if in
any doubt.
n Most alleyways need some degree
of access. A good design should
include a clear flat access path wide
enough for wheelie bins, disabled access or buggies.
n Many alleyways will have a concrete-lined base and will therefore be
unsuitable for conventional planting.
Pots, planters and troughs are an
ideal way of creating a strong design
identity to the space while providing
plenty of opportunity for planting.
n Climbers on funky trellis will
also add vertical interest. Climbing
hydrangeas are self clinging and highly
shade tolerant.
18
April, 2012
Homes & Gardens
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Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
19
Make this the
year to grow
your own veg
AS ‘grow your own’ campaigns have
gathered momentum in the last few
years, many people have had a go at
growing their own veg, even if they’ve
just had time and space to sow a few
lettuces in a window box.
If you haven’t tried your hand at veg
yet, make this the year you do.
Check the soil temperature first,
because if you sow too early the
seedlings will struggle and become
vulnerable to pests and diseases.
As a general guideline, in colder areas
you need to cover seed beds with
plastic sheeting or cloches for at least
three weeks before sowing to warm
up the soil, but nothing is set in stone.
Use a soil thermometer to check
the soil temperature in the morning,
pushing it 5-10cm into the soil. If it
remains above 7C for a week, you
should be safe to start sowing early
vegetables in prepared beds. Seed
sown before that temperature is
reached will
germinate, but will be more suscepti-
ble to soil diseases.
To prepare a seed bed, the soil needs
to be broken down to a fine tilth and
the surface levelled off with a rake –
it should end up like a fine, crumbly
texture. Throw out any stones, weeds
and other debris you come across
while doing this. It’s also advisable to
add some fertiliser such as chicken
manure pellets or blood, fish and
bone to the soil before sowing.
Then you can grow a wealth of
vegetables, from spring onions, leeks,
beetroot and radishes, to carrots,
parsnips and kohl rabi. If the area
you have is too small to rotate crops,
then grow what you like where you
can, but don't plant the same crop in
the same place two years running.
If you persevere with growing
vegetables from seed, before you
know it, you will be sitting down to a
meal of delicious vegetables you have
grown yourself – and will probably
have enough left over to give to your
neighbours.
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April, 2012
20
Homes & Gardens
De-clutter your home
IF someone peered into your drawers and cupboards, would they be
enviably neat and orderly or stuffed
full of a spaghetti-style tangle of items
that would take hours to unravel?
writes Gabrielle Fagan.
Most people probably have at least
one area like the latter; a ‘secret’
dumping ground where clutter
accumulates and despite their best
intentions, they never get around to
sorting it out.
But as spring arrives and we yearn
for more airy, organised spaces to
make us feel calmer and in control,
de-cluttering fever tends to strike.
Identify which type of hoarder you
are and then follow a personalised
clutter culling plan, with smart storage solutions to match.
You feel emotionally attached to your
things in a way that's probably inexplicable to others, and the thought
of getting rid of things you might end
up missing prevents you taking any
action at all.
You’ve probably kept your grownup children's personal possessions
and old toys, have drawers full of
paperwork and shelves groaning with
books, but can’t throw out things you
associate with memories and feelings.
Action plan: Get a friend to go
through items with you so they
can be dispassionate about making
decisions. Make a target to get rid
of one box a week so you don’t feel
overwhelmed. Give to charities so
you know your much-loved possessions are helping good
causes.
You’re brilliant at disguising it all, and
have invested in under-bed boxes,
hanging drawers in wardrobes, and
filled every cranny in the loft.
As you like to be in control and set
yourself high standards, you can’t
bear to start de-cluttering until you
can tackle the whole house, but that’s
such a large task, you keep putting
it off.
Action plan: Target the house room
by room, but allow enough time
to complete the sort-out. Make
sure you don’t slow yourself down
because of indecision by having a
couple of boxes marked ‘Keep’ and
‘Recycle’.
There’s a tide of possessions
throughout your house that you’d
love to sort, and corners in every
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Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
WELCOME to the spring edition of Homes and Gardens.
Sunny days are here again, and thoughts start turning to sprucing up the garden and
revamping your home.
Want to give your rooms a designer makeover but lacking the inspiration to get started? Read
on to find out how you can get the look yourself.
If you work from home you’ll love our feature on making even the smallest home office a
place to be proud of. And as it’s traditionally the time of year for the big spring clean, read our
tips on decluttering to get yourself organised and open up more space. Gardeners will want
to turn straight to our interview with TV’s Joe Swift, who gives us a sneak peak of what his
first ever Chelsea Flower Show entry holds.
There’s also advice on turning your street’s dead ends into neighbourhood green spaces
everyone can enjoy. With tips on growing your own vegetables and all the latest trends in
interiors, plants and garden accessories, you will find this issue packed with all the help you
need to transform your home this spring.
So sit back, relax and enjoy a good read before the hard work begins.
3
4
April, 2012
Homes & Gardens
Live a designer’s dream
EVER get ‘room envy’ at the sight of
glamorous settings in magazines or
on television?
You’re not the only one – it seems
the whole nation has caught the
interior design bug.
“We’ve all become so much more
style aware these days. There’s just
so much inspiration all around us,
from gorgeous film and TV locations
through to those boutique hotels,”
says Isobel McKenzie-Price, editorial
director of Ideal Home magazine.
“But just because money’s a little
tighter than before, it doesn’t mean
we’re prepared to compromise when
it comes to decorating our own
homes.”
McKenzie-Price has interpreted the
signature styles of interior designer
Kelly Hoppen using affordable high-
street homeware and furnishings,
proving it doesn’t take a millionaire
bank balance to achieve great style.
“All you need to do is take inspiration from successful designers who
use clever tricks that work just as
well with high-street buys as they do
with really high-end schemes,” she
says.
Isobel’s clever buys show it’s not
difficult to create a room that will
impress your friends and make them
think you’ve used the services of a
top designer.
For Hoppen’s chic look...
Kelly Hoppen’s style is a fusion of
east and west, combining simplicity with sumptuous textures and
luxe finishes, and a colour palette of
taupes, beiges and creams with black
as a grounding, defining colour.
Creating symmetry is key to her
streamlined, structured style and it
helps create a calm, ordered interior
for a living space.
She advises positioning furniture to
line up neatly around an existing feature, such as a fireplace or window.
“Sofas should face one another and
armchairs should be at a 45-degree
angle to sofas,” she says.
When adding shelves, pictures and
smaller pieces of furniture, position
them in exact symmetry with the
larger pieces of furniture, Hoppen
adds.
Designer tips: Use the same paint colour on walls, woodwork and ceiling
to create a seamless backdrop. Mix
textures by teaming hard surfaces
with soft fabrics, such as a lacquered
table next to an upholstered sofa.
Accessorise boldly with oversized
vases, big prints, huge arrangements
of artificial flowers, and sculptural
lighting.
Love the look: Start with taupe on
all large areas, then add definition
with lots of black, and finally lift the
scheme with white accents. Paints
such as Opulence Emulsion paint,
Dark Truffle, £21.98 for 2.5 litres
from B&Q, and London Bridge,
£19.50 for 2.5 litres from Graham &
Brown would suit this look.
Make a statement with an L-shaped
sofa, such as a Kivik sofa bed with
footstool, from £904 from Ikea. Black
and white accessories are essential:
Spindle Table Lamp, £45, Tesco; Kelly
Hoppen framed print, £64.50, and
White Rose Cylinder Glass vase,
£39.84, both from QVC.
Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
5
The Queen of elegance: interior desginer Kelly Hoppen.
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Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
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Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
A space of your own
THERE'S something special about a place of our
own at home, even if it is only a corner of the
kitchen where we can attend to the bills, a desk on
a landing where we get creative or the bliss of a
retreat at the bottom of the garden away from the
family.
“We all need a space we can call our own,” says
Caroline Clifton-Mogg, whose book, A Space Of My
Own, is packed with ingenious and practical ways of
conjuring a ‘work’ area.
“Decorate in a way that pleases you, perhaps your
favourite picture, or a gallery of photos and postcards that give you pleasure to gaze at.
“Choose colours well – bright shades to stimulate
and inspire, or calming, contemplative ones to allow
your inner creativity to peacefully emerge.”
Home office
“Working from home means you’re free to stray
from the neutral colour schemes and utility
furniture beloved by office managers and can be as
imaginative as you want.”
The secret of a good office at home is to combine
comfort, multi-purpose furniture and stylish storage
with carefully-chosen decorative pieces so that no
one element looks out of place with anything else
in the room.
Study space
“We all like the idea of a retreat, and the very word
‘study’ still conjures up the idea of a small, warm
room decorated with its owner’s most favourite
possessions,” says Clifton-Mogg.
Hidden retreat
“With a little imagination, it’s usually possible to
find a corner that may have been overlooked – one
end of a room screened
off by a curtain, space on a landing, a converted
cupboard under the stairs, or a deep cupboard.”
There’s no need to buy new furniture if you’re on a
tight budget. Source pieces from second-hand furniture shops, auctions or online recycling sites such as
www.freecycle.org.
A Space Of My Own by Caroline Clifton-Mogg is published by Ryland Peters & Small, £19.99.
146 – 152 SATION ROAD ADDLESTONE, SURREY, KT15 2BE
TEL. 01932 842362 FAX. 01932 845601
EMAIL: AHSPITTLE@AOL.COM WWW.AHSPITTLEELECTRICAL.CO.UK
7
April, 2012
8
Homes & Gardens
Dreaming of a good
IF there’s one place in the home that
should be a peaceful retreat, where
it’s almost impossible not to instantly
rest and relax, it's the bedroom,
writes Gabrielle Fagan.
Be inspired by the founder of The
White Company Chrissie Rucker,
designers Zandra Rhodes and Rachel
Ashwell, the presenter of TV’s
Location, Location, Location Kirstie
Allsopp, and pop superstar Kylie
Minogue.
inspire happy memories on a white
painted bedside table.
Her tip: Accommodate an easy chair
where you can sit and relax, and
keep the bed as a separate zone for
sleeping. Colours such as soft smoky
greys, pinks, blues, teals, taupes, ivory
and whites are good choices for a
peaceful setting.
Rachel Ashwell’s Shabby Chic bed
linen collection starts from £60 for a
duvet cover from House of Fraser.
Rachel Ashwell
Her name is synonymous with the
trend for ‘shabby chic’, an unpretentious laid-back living style she helped
bring into vogue 20 years ago.
Ashwell favours a country look for a
bedroom based around easy-on-theeye soft, primitive colours.
“I love faded florals, with vintage
scatter cushions on the bed for
summer days, and like to conjure an
eclectic, romantic, inviting and soft
atmosphere,” she says.
“Traditional furniture, either in light
or bleached wood or in distressed
finishes in whites or greys, won’t
dominate and will impart a tranquil
feel.”
In her own bedroom she has plush
silk curtains, a sparkling chandelier
and a collection of photographs to
Chrissie Rucker
The founder of the hugely successful
The White Company believes the
bedroom should be a sensual sanctuary where comfort reigns.
“The starting point for great quality
bed linen is that it must be made
from the best quality yarn. Once
you’ve slept in fabulously smooth and
luxurious pure cotton - whatever
the thread count – you’ll never look
back,” she says.
“It’s worth investing in high quality bed linen because it really does
affect the way we sleep. Pure cotton
or linen are preferable because both
fabrics are breathable, cool and
comfortable.
“Don’t be deceived into thinking
that the higher the thread count the
better the sheet, as different types
of bed linen require different thread
counts to produce the desired finished product.”
Her tip: In spring and summer a bedroom should be a cool, airy sanctuary
with soothing scents.
“Lavender-based scents or rose and
peony always work well, as do flowers such as simple white potted orchids. Use pillow mist or linen spray
to scent linen and a scented candle
to help you unwind after a long day.”
Santorini Bed Linen Collection starts
from £75 for a double duvet cover
and features in the ranges at The
White Company.
Kirstie Allsopp
“I love beautiful bed linen – there’s
nothing like climbing into crisp, clean
sheets at the end of a long, tiring
day,” says Allsopp.
“My bedroom isn’t exactly an exclusive sanctuary as there are always
small people crawling into bed for a
cuddle! When decorating a bedroom
I like a theme based around one thing
that I can’t live without, which might
be favourite bed linen, or curtain
fabric, or an accessory, and I build the
scheme from there.
“Currently, I’m embracing colour
for my bedding with lots of florals,
stripes and ginghams which have a
vintage look with a contemporary
twist, and can be matched with
co-ordinating cushions, throws and
feminine lampshades.”
Her tip: Instead of redecorating,
rearrange furniture and buy bedroom
treats such as towels, sheets, cushions or lamp shades to transform a
room for little cost.
Kirsty Allsopp’s Home Living Collection starts from £50 for a single
duvet cover. Stockists include House
of Fraser, Debenhams and selected
Fenwicks.
Rachel Ashwell..
Homes & Gardens
April, 2012
night’s slumber
Zandra Rhodes
The British fashion designer is known
for her flamboyant, joie de vivre
designs and renowned for her use of
colour and pattern.
“I think when your bedroom looks
fabulous it makes your home very
special,” she says.
“Just as you change your look with
what you wear, by changing the bedding and bedspreads, a new look can
be achieved in an instant.”
One of her favourite themes for a
bedroom is her trademark vivid pink,
and she’s used cerise cabbage roses
for the walls, with a focal point of a
queen-sized heart-shaped bed.
Her tip: Re-dressing the bed completely revamps a scheme, so take
your lead from that and accessorise
around it.
The Summer Collection of bed linen
from Zandra Rhodes starts from £60
for a double duvet cover. For stockists visit www.ashleywildegroup.com.
Kylie Minogue
The singing star has her own collection of bed linen and says: “Bed
should be a place for just two things
– love and sleep.
“I’ve actually become a better sleeper
than I used to be by doing the things
you should do in bed rather than the
things you
shouldn’t, such as being on my laptop
or watching TV.
“I love making beds with fresh linen
– either from my At Home range or
vintage – but I hate hospital corners.
I like to be able to pull things around
me.
“Travel and vintage finds are my main
inspiration for my bed linen designs.
“I have a gorgeous eiderdown from
the 1930s that I found a couple of
years ago on eBay, beautiful vintage
fabrics I have owned for close to
20 years, a hand-painted book of
Japanese kimono designs bought 10
years ago in Melbourne, and my focal
point is the silk and crystal-studded
panelled wall of my bedroom.”
Her tip: Make a bedroom a place of
refuge with lovely linen, throws and
cushions.
Banish TVs, computers, iPads and
mobile phones, and run a hot bath
with oil and scented candles to relax
you before you turn in.
The Kylie Minogue At Home collection starts from £55 for a single
quilt cover and is available in stores
throughout the UK, including Debenhams, House of Fraser, selected
Fenwicks and Next online.
9
Above: Kylie Minogue loves linen and
finds inspiration in travel and the vintage
look.
Below: Rachel Ashworth’s shabby chic